Chandrayaan-3 Launch Was Delayed By 4 Seconds: Here Is Why
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has revealed that the launch of the country's third mission to the moon, Chandrayaan-3, was delayed by four seconds. According to the ISRO,?the lift-off of Chandrayaan-3 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre on?14 July?2023, was?delayed?to avoid hitting a piece of space debris.
Space debris cause?Chandrayaan-3 launch delay
In a recently published report, the Indian Situational Space Awareness Report (ISSAR) for 2023,?it was revealed?that the nominal lift-off of the Launch Vehicle Mark-3, carrying?Chandrayaan-3?had?to be delayed by four seconds based on the Collision on Launch Avoidance (COLA) analysis.
"For LVM3-M4/ Chandrayaan-3, the nominal lift-off had to be delayed by 4 seconds based on COLA analysis to avoid close approaches between a debris object and the injected satellites in their orbital phase due to overlapping operational altitudes," ISRO said.
What is space debris
Space debris is human-generated objects, such as pieces of spacecraft, tiny flecks of paint from a spacecraft, parts of rockets, satellites that are no longer working, or explosions of objects in orbit flying around in space at high speeds.
According to NASA,?there are?millions of pieces of space debris?flying?in the low Earth orbit (LEO)?and?they?can pose a?serious?threat to spacecraft in case of a collision.
Other ISRO missions delayed by space debris
The report also stated that Chandrayaan-3 was not the only launch ISRO had to delay slightly in 2023 to avoid collision with space debris.
The launch of two Singaporean satellites -- DS-SAR satellite onboard the PSLV-C56 on?July 30, 2023, and TeLEOS-2 on?April 24?was delayed by one minute?each?following a COLA analysis.
Chandrayaan-3?mission??
ISRO launched the Chandrayaan-3?mission with lunar lander module Vikram and rover Pragyan on?July 14, 2023, and?it?entered lunar orbit on?5 August.
India created history on?August 23, 2023, by successfully landing the lander on the moon's south pole, becoming the first country to do so.
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